HomeMy WebLinkAboutBen Downs Starts at WTAW Transcript, WTAW First 100 YearsProject HOLD
WTAW Interview
Ben Downs | WTAW & Bryan Broadcasting General Manager
Tom Turbiville | WTAW Radio Host
Laura Quezada | Transcriber
00:00:00 Dick Bolin (DB)
College Station, Texas, April 14, 1947, Dick Bolin talking. Here's the latest news from the
Associated Press…
[Unintelligible news broadcaster speaking]
00:00:07 Speaker 2
Aggies win 74-72! Here's your…
00:00:12 Speaker 3
…1620 WTAW.
-------------------------------
00:00:19 Tom Turbiville (TT)
This is WTAW, the First 100 Years, I'm Tom Turbiville. Ben Downs has been the general
manager at WTAW and Bryan Broadcasting since 1990. But you got to rewind 18 years to find
his introduction to the station.
00:00:36 Ben Downs (BD)
I did come to work here in October of 1972. I had been on the air at other stations, and-- but I
was going to sit-- sit it out for a while; well, that lasted for less than a month. I was listening on
the radio and the… guy was having a lot of trouble with some of the equipment wasn't working ,
and I got to where I couldn't stand it anymore; I said, “Well, you know, if you'll just unplug it and
then plug it back in, it'll start working again”. He did that and he said, “Wow, ha-- are you-- have
you been in radio?”, and I s-- , “well, yes, I have”. He said, “Do you want a job?”, and of course,
I really did, so I came up here. I was hired on the spot because things were a little tight at the
time and, uh, and I've been here for a long time. Like I say though, I took a number of years out
in the middle to sort of tour around Texas, but it's, um, this has always really been home ; came
back in 1989 and stayed.
00:01:35 (TT)
Texas A&M Class of 1976, first on the radio in his hometown of Hope, Arkansas, sharing the
mic with the future governor, Mike Huckabee, and was the 2010 Texas Association of
Broadcasters, Broadcaster of the Year. Obviously, there's a lot more you'll hear about Ben Downs
of WTAW, the First 100 Years.